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Day 7 - London's Last Day

Friday, April 03, 2009

My last full day in London. The week has flown by much faster than I had expected. It seems like just yesterday I was making my way into the big city aboard the Express train watching in wonder as the city appeared before my eyes. Now, I'm getting ready to leave it behind me. Am I sad? No, not really. It's a lovely city but far too busy for my liking and overrun with tourists in it's centre. Will I be back? Most definately. There's so much that I haven't seen and want to experience (most notably Greenwich .... yep, that's right, I never made it), I'll be back eventually. For now though, I'm giving myself a nice slow day and looking forward to heading to the Kentish countryside tomorrow.

As this is supposed to be a vacation and vacations are supposed to be relaxing, I don't have much on my plate today. I also decided that I wouldn't spend a full day out so I have plenty of down time tonight to pack and go to bed early. With that in minded, I headed to Hyde Park to have a wander around one of London's largest green spaces and then, if I felt up to it, I'd visit the Royal Geographical Society. The weather however was not one to cooperate. As I stepped out of my hotel, the wind whipped around me in a frenzy and the skies threatened to open up in a torrential downpour at any moment. Can't really complain, it held off until the end of my time in the city.

I arrived at Hyde Park Corner station and made my way towards the Wellington Arch. It's just across the street from the entrance to Hyde Park. Along with the arch pictured at the right and a statue of Wellington, this little park in the centre of one of London's busiest roundabouts also holds a number of war memorials including the Royal Artillery Regiment Memorial, the New Zealand War Memorial, and one dedicated to the Machine Gun Corps and their service in the Great War. The weather by this point was getting much worse, my hands starting to go numb whenever I pulled out my camera so I headed across the street and onto Hyde Park.

The next hour was spent wandering through the park, reflecting on the past week and trying to keep warm. I passed by a massive statue of Achilles, a fountain and was ina the process of searching for the Memorial to Animals in War when I was stopped by an Icelandic woman conducting a survey on Skyr, an dairy product from Iceland. I felt so bad for her having to stand out there freezing so I answered her questions. By the time I had reached Speaker's Corner, I was quite chilly and wishing I had brought my mittens. Tired and cold, I cut my short day even shorter and opted to head home. I would have liked to see more of the park but the weather was just not going to cooperate.

I grabbed a bag of crisps, and some smarties and hopped on the tube. No famous people spotted today but that's ok. My entire trip can't be filled with star sightings! The kebab shop near Tufnell Park station was open when I came up to the street level so I popped in and grabbed myself an order of chips for dinner. And just in time - the raindrops began to fall as I walked back outside and headed back to the hotel. Eeeek! Walking briskly, I made it in the front door as the downpour began. Whew!

The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent sorting through my clothes, repacking my suitcase and trying to stuff my souvenirs in alongside my socks and undies without breaking anything. All in all a pretty good week in the big city. I was pretty proud of myself, tackling a trip like this on my own. I probably would have seen more (and spent more money) if I had someone travelling with me but I'm not disappointed despite not getting to see all that I wanted to. As I said earlier, I'll just have to start planning my next trip and fitting in the rest of what London has to offer! Next up, catching the train to the South East coast in order to visit Chez AsteRed and a nice, relaxing (yeah...right) few days in the country.

About Me

I'm Karen, a 40' something single Canuck gal who loves funky socks, football, reading, Coca-Cola, warm cat snuggles, and french fry sandwiches on white bread. I'd also like to take over the world but I just don't have the will power.